Interviews and Elections

Nothing insightful today. Just a little update.

I had an interview today with a small engineering firm in Chicago. I'm super interested in working for them. I'd be a sort-of consultant, my co-workers would be really smart people, I'd get to learn lots of new technology, and I'd get to interface with all sorts of other industry people. The interview went well, for the most part.

I have an interview of Friday with a patent law firm. They'd teach me all the legal stuff; I'd be in charge of meeting with the inventors and turning the technical stuff into legal language. I previously said that I'm not interested in patent law based on my aptitudes, but now I could see patent law being satisfying. I guess I just want to learn more about it. The interview is Friday morning from 9:30am to 1:00pm. I'll meet 6 to 8 people during that time. Sounds grueling.

Here's something: I think presidential elections are a lot less scary when you don't feel like the world is at stake. I know someone who said that if Obama were elected, there wouldn't be an America. Something about Obama socializing the hell out of everything and making much worse our economic situation. I know someone else who said that if McCain were elected, he would die in office, Palin would be president, and she would prevent all science funding because she is so anti-science. Both of these people relate very strongly with their respective political party and find it difficult to talk to folks who identify with the opposing party because it's so obvious how the "other" candidate would ruin the country. Their intense fear of a possible outcome leads to a failure to communicate with those who may disagree.

This is only tenuously related to job interviews. Getting desperate and feeling like the job you are interviewing for is your only hope will ruin you. That fear will lead to a failure to communicate. Remember that you can *always* get back out there and find someone to hire you. This engineering firm I talked with today is the only engineering firm on my radar right now. If they don't hire me and I feel like it's the sort of place I belong, I can start cold calling for leads like I did with the design firms. I find that it's much easier to believe this line of thinking having done it already. I recommend the experience for anyone thinking about changing careers.